The image has become an archetype of modern video-game marketing. A grinning, pan-generational family, arms flailing as they enjoy the latest motion-control game in their large, well-lit living space. It’s an easy cliche to notice, but back when Wii Sports enchanted the masses with its tennis-themed tech-demo dressed as a game, Nintendo's promo shot wasn’t so far from the reality. Wii Tennis delivered, and ever since, every new motion-control system has debuted with a sports minigame compilation conceived to prove its worth.

And so we come to Kinect Sports Rivals, jogging off the start line four months after the launch of Xbox One and its inescapably bundled Kinect 2.0, but ready and willing to help make the case for motion control.

Rare brilliance

Things start well for developer Rare. The first time Kinect Sports Rivals comes to life, it demands that new players make a submissive stoop towards their TV. A few minutes later, Kinect 2.0 has scanned a range of physical details and pasted them together into an impressive caricature. Skin tone, hairstyle, glasses, build, height and more are all captured, without any traditional player inputs. Not a single choice or button press is required for Rivals’ first conjuring trick. With that opener, Kinect 2.0 quickly establishes itself as far superior to its Xbox 360 forbearer.

After the game has introduced its island setting, and a colour palette and an exuberantly sunny atmosphere taken straight from the monitors of 90s arcade games, it is time to straddle an imaginary jetski and race.

It’s an ungainly mime, legs akimbo and hands grasping invisible handle bars, but as soon as you cut through the waves, it’s easy to forget posture. Called "wake racing" throughout Kinect Sports Rivals, jostling in the swell and pulling stunts is both enjoyable and responsive. Leaning while turning the imagined handlebars works well to simulate steering, and opening and closing a fist to replicate throttle control feels like a thing of magic. Even if you don’t have a vast, stark and brightly lit living room, the jetski responds. It’s certainly a thing of novelty that admittedly pales in comparison to the best racing games, but it is well crafted and entertaining nonetheless.

Rising problems

Rival’s climbing game is almost as immediate and fun as the wake racing. Presenting the player with simple cliff-face races, it demands much grabbing in the air for handholds, again using finger motions to grip and release. The ascents mix a little strategy with a dainty pace, but also show the first signs that Kinect Sports Rivals has rather too many control flaws. Occasionally, a handhold grip fails to register, or the most graceful real-world motions are interpreted by the game in a way that tangles the virtual climber into a contorted, dangling mess.

But it is in the football and shooting range minigames in which Rivals’ problems truly manifest. In each case it's a great shame, as the ideas themselves are solid. The shooting range sees the plastic light guns of the past switched for that versatile playground weapon, the finger gun. The concept of downing targets with a bullet from the index digit is beguiling, but the reality is an otherwise well-balanced gallery shooter let down by disappointing inaccuracy.

The football meanwhile, is probably better compared to foosball, as the pitch is scattered with the members of two teams whose positions are near fixed. The active player assumes the role of any athlete with the ball at their feet, hopping between the psyche of strikers, defenders and even the keeper, in time with the ball. As such, taking responsibility for passing, saving and shooting for goal is the player’s sole task. It would be a smart re-appropriation of the sport, but ball control can become wildly erratic, as Kinect 2.0 seems to sway like a pendulum between accuracy and imprecision.

Game, set and twitch

Rivals also includes those motion control stalwarts, tennis and bowling. Each delivers a straightforward interpretation of their respective sports, but as far as control is concerned, again they are simply inconsistent.

The interface problems are a disappointment, as each individual game notionally has much going for it. While tennis and bowling are pedestrian in structure, throughout there are enough ideas and novelties to keep things appealing. Visually, Kinect Sports Rivals is a polished beast, while its audio clout delivers a nostalgic echo from arcades of the past. There’s also a reasonable spread of game modes to engender variety.

But in a motion control game it is simple; control is paramount. When Kinect 2.0 behaves, Rare’s creation can be plenty of fun, especially in a social setting. But its lack of consistency breeds a sense of distrust in players, and with that the fun fades. It seems that flawless hands-free motion control applicable to a variety of living room environments continues to remain just out of our reach.